Like clockwork, another RAJAR comes around, and the radio industry all pauses to look at the new figures for the quarter.
Here are some of the overall highlights:

• Overall reach remains at the high point it was last quarter (down just 9,000 people)
• Digital listening has increased to 24.8% (up from 24.6% last quarter)
• Commercial radio made some marginal gains on the BBC

First of all, indulge me a little. At work, we’re very pleased with our results. The Absolute Radio Network of services has posted its highest hours for four and half years – well into Virgin Radio territory – with a 19% increase in reach on the quarter (33% on the year) and 24% increase in hours on the quarter (48% on the year).
That increase comes broadly speaking across the board from Absolute Radio services. But Absolute 80s is undoubtedly a hit. It’s already bigger than the BBC Asian Network in reach terms with 564,000 listeners, and 3.7m hours which about as many as Smooth has in London to give you an idea of scale.
But aside from Absolute Radio, who else has been doing well?
There’s the usual mixture of results among BBC services. Radio 1 loses a small amount in reach, but hangs on to its listening hours. Radio 2 is pretty much flat. Radio 3 has had a good quarter which I imagine will in large part be due to the Proms falling in Q3. Radio 4 has lost a few hours but otherwise has little to worry about. Five Live has slipped a bit in reach, but hours are broadly the same.
The station everyone keeps an eye out for these days in 6Music. Well despite the threat of closure being long lifted, it has maintained its audience of just under 1.2m. BBC 7 – at some stage to be renamed Radio 4 Extra – has achieved a record amount of listening gaining 10% on the previous quarter, and its reach is equal to its record high as well. It’ll be interesting to see what happens at such time as the station does get a rebrand.
Talksport will be pleased with some significant increases in reach and hours which take the station back up to the levels it was before last quarter’s “blip” in audience figures. Classic FM has maintained its reach and hours, and Planet Rock has achieved its biggest ever number of listeners.
In London there are a few changes – as ever. Magic is now the clear commercial winner in the capital with a dominant lead in hours and a handful more reach than Capital. Heart has fallen back into third place in reach terms, while LBC continues to do well in hours. Xfm is not in great shape though: it’s reach is flat, but hours have fallen 29% on the previous quarter.
All the major commercial radio groups have seen increases. As well as Absolute Radio’s increases, noted above, UTV has increased 13.3% in hours, Bauer is up 5.7%, GMG is up 3.6% and Global is up 2.7% – all quarter on quarter.
Both Chris Moyles and Chris Evans have seen dips at breakfast, although Evans maintains a significant lead over Moyles even though he has a shorter show (and this is based on times prior to Evans’ show’s recent extension – he’s now doing three hours compared with Wogan’s two). Christian O’Connell is up 16% on the previous quarter, while Johnny and Lisa have also seen gains. Jamie has seen a bit of a dip – down nearly 10% – while Kiss has had a poor set of results losing 26% at breakfast. It should be said that Kiss’s numbers can fluctuate a bit, and last quarter was a very good set.
The digital listening figure for all radio went up a fraction as noted above. I think it’s fair to say that it’s a bit disappointing even if the year on year growth is quite reasonable – up from 21.1% to 24.8% now. The BBC is slightly ahead of that average at 24.9% while commercial radio is slightly behind it at 24.1%.
The number of people who ever listen via mobile phones continues to increase, up 2.3% to 12.8% on the previous quarter. It’s a lot higher amongst younger listeners where 30.7% say that they have listened like this.
So there you have it – a few nuggets. There’ll be plenty of other stories that have yet to be dug out, especially in local and regional radio where I’ve not concentrated yet. And I haven’t even gone into how RAJAR measures children (essentially it’s change and they now measure 10-14 year olds, but no younger.)
RAJAR’s press release is here. Absolute Radio’s release is here. And the full set of figures can be found here.
As ever, these are my views and don’t necessarily reflect those of my employer, even though much of what I’ve written here is based on analysis conducted for my employer, and using RAJAR data that I’d otherwise not gain access to.
All the data is taken from RAJAR Wave 3 2010 data with the appropriate station or grouping weightings applied. Source: RAJAR/Ipsos MORI/RSMB.